


Release

by Nununununu



Category: His Dark Materials (TV)
Genre: (Enables them to do it), Don't copy to another site, Explicit Consent, Explicit Sexual Content, Feelings, First Time, Friends to Lovers, Frottage, Intercrural Sex, M/M, Oral Sex, Overstimulation, Sex Pollen, Size Difference, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:27:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22041793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nununununu/pseuds/Nununununu
Summary: Having agreed not to act on mutual feelings three years ago, Lee and Iorek discover something that causes them to question this.
Relationships: Iorek Byrnison/Lee Scoresby
Comments: 8
Kudos: 52
Collections: New Year's Sins Flash Exchange





	Release

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DoreyG](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoreyG/gifts).



> Trigger warning for initial mildly dubious consent given the sex pollen trope, however the 'pollen' here just acts as an enabler for characters who already want each other and consent is quickly and explicitly established. Can be read as Iorek/Hester/Lee if so inclined.
> 
> For the New Year's Sins challenge. This fic went for Lust, plus a hint of Pride and a moment of Wrath. The Lust prompts included are:
> 
> Lusting After a Bear; Fucking a Bear (here not literally); Ship's first time having sex with each other; First Time Seeing Each Other Naked; Sex pollen - sex between characters who had previously agreed not to act on mutual attraction; Too Desperate to Reach a Bed.
> 
> Thanks for the fun prompts, DoreyG! Hope you like your fic.

“ _Lee_ ,” Iorek’s voice was a rumble, even deeper than usual, with an edge of heat to it that wasn’t ornery but something else instead.

“Uh,” Abruptly dizzied, Lee swayed slightly, raising a hand to his head. He felt Hester lean against his ankle, as if she too were affected by whatever it was. He squinted at their panserbjørn friend, trying to gather his scattered wits, “Iorek? What –”

“Spell work,” Iorek was pawing the ground, clearly agitated. He nodded his great heavy head towards the broken bottle on the rough floor of the cavern they’d been exploring –

Oh yes.

Lee blinked, memory trickling back to him. His legs had been itching for a walk despite almost everyone else having settled down in the camp in anticipation of the long cold night, and so he and Hester had volunteered to accompany Iorek on scouting out the direction they would be travelling in the next day while what light there was remained. While this could well have been Iorek’s own way of indirectly stating he needed some space from this group of humans he’d found himself part of now he’d regained his armour and left Trollesund behind, he’d accepted the offer of company graciously.

Lee and Hester’s company, which he’d claimed so strongly before not to want. Lee had a theory about the reason for that.

He’d kept mum about it for the time being even so, sensing how seriously their old friend took his efforts to protect Lyra, the kid Lee had found himself feeling a sort of kinship for similarly and would not see fall to harm. They hadn’t spoken much as such, mostly comments about the terrain, and the presence of a tunnel leading deep into a towering cliff had seemed necessary to investigate. Rather than marking it on his rudimentary map and returning to it on the morrow, Lee had lit the storm lantern he’d collected before their walk from the balloon, and Hester had hopped at his heels, her ears back a little, as they’d followed Iorek’s reassuringly sturdy back into the tunnel that had eventually led to the cavern.

As an aëronaut by nature and passion, Lee had felt like his ears were pressed back himself at the feeling of the immeasurable weight of rock above and around them by the time they reached the place the tunnel opened up into, and the sight they’d found there had proved a timely distraction.

The cavern bore obvious signs of a past inhabitant – a pile of furs forming a musty bed in one corner, battered pots and a couple of old metal tools in another, and a row of bottles standing on a rough natural shelf over to one side. All of it looking well-aged, unused for years, tell-tale signs of rust and dust everywhere.

“Who would have lived _here_?” Hester had taken one breath in, sneezed, twitched her ears rapidly, and then sneezed again.

“What's the matter?” Lee had eased past the great bulk of polar bear filling the entrance to the cavern to cross closer to his daemon, at which point Iorek had grumbled low under his breath, shaking his heavy head, and sneezed as well.

This was all very unusual behaviour. Rubbing at his eyes, his gaze searching out hare and panserbjørn, Lee had tipped his hat back on his head and ended up sneezing himself at the itch building in the back of his nose, his senses assaulted by a sickly scent he couldn’t place.

And then he’d seen the broken bottle, fallen from that rough shelf to smash on the floor, dark glittering powder scattered amongst the glass shards over the stone, and the next breath he’d taken in to speak words of caution had sent his mind reeling with vertigo instead.

So here they were.

The stuff was clearly potent, whatever it was, and every time Lee went to suggest they should find a means of identifying and containing the powder, and then to leave, he found himself tugging at his collar or the brim of his hat instead, or glancing over at Iorek, finding the polar bear taking a couple of directionless paces within the cavern that was fast seeming more than a little cramped. 

Hester’s gaze, on the other hand, was fixed steadily on the panserbjørn; she was hunkered in a bun-shape, the one she planted herself down in when she was adamant she would not be moved, but Lee could sense how out of shape she was also feeling and just how intently she was considering their friend. Almost trembling with it.

He was inexplicably feeling a bit like trembling himself, in truth.

“Witches, then?” he made himself ask, pushing the words out, as Iorek had made an observation about the nature of the glittering powder and it was important they – they understand – what it was. Even if Lee was having trouble remembering why.

He – his body _wanted_ something. He realised his hand had gone to the collar of his shirt this time, while Iorek’s head kept swinging back in his direction, and then Hester’s.

“ _Humans_ ,” Iorek growled, and it was a very impressive sound indeed, echoing as it did off the cavern walls. Sitting without warning on his haunches, he pawed at his nose quite uncharacteristically before sneezing again, “Meddling as ever with what they should not.” He nodded at the powder, his dark eyes shining with flecks of gold, reflecting the dim light of the lantern Lee still held, “Witch work tampered with by fools.”

Looking at those eyes, Lee felt like his mind was trying to whirl up off into the sky higher than even his balloon could reach.

“Guess we’re paying the price of that,” He was tugging at his necktie, he realised, and tried to slap his hand down – because why was he doing that? Shaking himself, Lee sent his brain firm instructions to focus on the most important parts of the problem at hand and not the – the possible reason why he – he felt so darned prickly and overheated. 

“Is it paining you?” he took a step closer to Iorek, focusing on his friend, who huffed at the observation and rose up on his sturdy forepaws to almost lurch in towards Lee –

Who stiffened, but not in alarm, a reaction that would have been very stupid of him had it been any other polar bear. Then again, he would have had to have been very stupid to let any other polar bear get so close.

“I sense that it is troubling us all,” A warm wet nose pressed against the strip of skin Lee had showing beneath his hair and opened collar, in against the crook of his neck, and he had to do his best not to yelp. 

“Ah!” Both of his hands came up all the same, failing to quite bat at Iorek; at the ticklish whuff of breath that gusted down the inside of his shirt to raise goose bumps on his skin. He sought to laugh, although that shaky feeling inside him was blooming rapidly, his body wanting – _wanting_ –

“Hm,” Hester made a small noise at the unexpected proximity as well.

“You smell better than that awful substance,” Iorek observed.

“Why then, help yourself,” Lee’s mouth for some reason felt it mighty sensible to answer, even as he was laughing a little, his hands burying in stunningly soft fur he’d – he’d admittedly wondered far more than a handful of times about touching, his burrowing fingers absorbing Iorek’s heat and vitality and strength.

It would take no trouble for the panserbjørn to knock him clean off his feet, to tumble him down onto that musty old bed of furs in the corner – no trouble at all. Lee found he was almost panting with how much he wanted it.

“Lee, it’s – it’s the spell,” Hester commented, her tone implying she believed it was purely responsible just as much as he did, but was feeling equally het up. Lee managed to crook his head enough to look down at her and meet the gaze she was aiming up at him, “Think it’s wanting you both to keep on doing what you’re doing?”

“I don’t rightly know,” Lee _did_ know – or at least he knew what he was aching for the answer to be. But it was hardly just his opinion that was important here. He had to swallow thickly at the noise Iorek made against his throat; belly quivering at the graze of teeth and lips against his jaw; his heart thumping so hard he could barely hear himself for all he kept his voice light, “What do you reckon, Iorek? Do you think we're suffering some sort of – of compulsion because of the spell? Or –”

Or.

Unspoken as it went, that was the real question, wasn’t it.

Because this wasn’t the first time they’d been teetering on this sort of precipice, Lee, Hester and Iorek. Three years ago, back when they’d left Novy Odense behind them, Lee had landed his balloon for the night and the three of them had sat around a fire with the remains of their dinner, and had come to the understanding that for all Lee might have thought his panserbjørn friend mighty impressive and Iorek just might have considered Lee not too bad for a gangly young man who was in some ways still a touch green around the edges, well –

Well. They’d become friends during that first adventure, good friends, and Lee had always felt the loss of it after they’d parted ways, but –

But they’d all agreed back then that things had been best left between them as friendship and Lee had thought himself content with it. Rather, he had _told_ himself he was content with it and Hester had only sought to bring it up a couple of times, before she too had seemed to accept that that, as one might say, had been that.

“No,” Iorek rumbled against Lee’s neck now.

“No?” For all the dizzy urgency dancing through his restless limbs, Lee took half a step back, “Iorek, if you don’t want this –”

They had to find a way to stop it, then, and fast.

“ _No_ ,” Iorek said again, as if frustrated with his own inability to explain, the word melting into a reverberant growl Lee weathered staunchly, as if the need thrumming through him wasn’t growing near enough to shake him apart, “I do not believe –” Their old friend had to stop to take a breath in, which likely only worsened the difficulties he was experiencing, “I do not believe the compulsion would act upon those who are – unwilling.” 

Lee shivered as Iorek’s voice slipped deeper.

“I do not believe that witches would allow for such a thing to happen with something they had crafted, however humans might tamper with it.”

Discovering he was leaning in more heavily against his friend and Hester very close to touching a massive forepaw, Lee wrinkled his nose in the effort to concentrate on the conversation, “And so –” He hardly dared to say it for fear Iorek would, like those years ago, refuse. “You _do_ want it, then. This.”

Iorek went very still against him, for all he remained breathing hard. Lee had to firmly instruct his hands not to clutch at white fur, not to cling.

“I want it,” Iorek said eventually, very lowly, as if the confession was wrung out of him alongside a slice of pain, “I wanted it three years ago. I was simply ashamed.”

As he had been ashamed of Lee and Hester seeing him without his armour in Trollesund, Lee was certain; brought so low by humans once again. Tricked, when the panserbjørn had no ability himself or care for deception.

All but imprisoned amongst humans’ detritus, his existence denied, kept in near squalor as he was manipulated and used.

For all Lee was always one to put on his best manners along with his smile, had it not been for a child’s innocent horror, part of him admittedly could have easily ended up right behind his friend as Iorek tore the town down. How humanity could treat an intelligent, compassionate, noble creature so poorly time and again; how they could treat a fellow _person_ so poorly – because, for all Iorek wasn’t human, he _was_ a person, just as sentient and self-aware as anyone else.

More intelligent and compassionate than no few humans Lee had encountered in his time, in fact.

“Lee?” Iorek was all tension and repression against him, feeing much as if he were doing some serious regretting, “If _you_ do not want this –” He began to drag his heavy head away from Lee’s shoulder, “I apologise. To you as well, Hester. You should both hasten to leave me –”

“No,” It was Lee’s turn to hastily say.

“Hell no,” Hester added, and went ahead and placed her small forepaws upon that one of Iorek’s, sending a swift shock of bright sensation jetting all the way up the length of Lee’s spine.

He was practically gasping, forgetting his determination not to cling, “ _Iorek_ –”

The name meaning ‘please’.

“You _want_ this,” Iorek said as heavily as he had said anything, “You _trust_ me to –” as if establishing this was absolutely imperative, and both Lee and his daemon answered together at once:

“ _Yes_.”

God, yes.

Things took a perhaps predictable turn after that – Iorek _did_ push Lee down, which Lee was entirely delighted about, Hester shifting wisely out of the way but not far enough she couldn’t press her small body against a strong furry leg as human and polar bear rolled together, the smaller, rangy body ending up for safety’s sake atop the much larger, heavier one. It didn’t even seem to matter that armour wasn’t shed, nor clothes, nor that they had not even been able to contain themselves any longer in order to make it to that old musty bed.

Lee couldn’t even honestly say whether he cared or not if the glittering powder had triggered this. After all, they had only needed the push.

It was quite the puzzle getting things sorted out between them at first, especially as Iorek seemed to every so often take objection to being on his back or side and not on top, and Lee had to thump him a bit to remind him of the size and weight difference, which was quite the challenge given he _very_ much wanted his friend above him, over him, the thought of Iorek’s mass surrounding him heady and welcome in all the ways the stone of the cliffs around them was not.

They ended up giving this a go, in fact, with some contorting and a little compromising, and it was entirely wonderful.

The cavern was filled with panting and grunting and the occasional clanging of armour on stone thereafter, and the sound of Hester deciding she simply had to start bounding around, all of this for long enough the flame in the storm lantern took to flickering like it was threatening to go out.

“ _I-Iorek_ – _hah_ –” Lee found himself spilling over before he was ready to regardless, even as he was scrabbling to unfasten the ties to his trousers – one touch of Iorek’s wet tongue against his vulnerable belly where his shirt had rucked up, and that was it – he was gone.

“ _Lee_ ,” Iorek sounded much like he wanted to _eat_ him, which to Lee’s orgasm-drenched brain seemed like a marvellous idea. Hester was all but rolling around belly up alongside them in agreement and so Lee struggled to get his trousers properly open, clumsy with nerves and desire, more wound up even than back when he’d had his first kiss and fumble no few years back.

“You smell so very good, my friend –”

And then Iorek’s mouth was _there_ , his tongue, swiping over Lee’s softening cock and the mess he’d made of his underwear, and Lee surprised even himself by squealing in really quite an undignified manner. He thankfully managed to angle his leg up to give Iorek’s own cock something to rub against even so, that part of him frankly just as impressive as the rest.

“Oh –” Lee wanted – how he wanted – he wanted to fuck Iorek and for Iorek to fuck him, and for all sorts of probably impossible things, and the longing for it just made him squirm all the harder at each pass of that rough hot tongue against his oversensitive cock, so good and so pleasurable he had to bite his fist and shake nearly to pieces, and pull at fur so hard it would have hurt anyone else.

“ _Yes_ –” The tug instead seemed only to spur Iorek on, and Lee was going to have to insist he take his clothes off next time – if there were to – _please_ – be a next time – as the repeated drag of his trousers against his leg was starting to chafe something awful for all he never wanted Iorek to stop.

“Come on, Lee,” Thankfully a pointed cough from Hester at this point jogged his brain into motion enough that Lee thought to call a bit of a halt long enough to change things up, nudging Iorek into a position that allowed him to get his hands down – and yes, it took _both_ hands, and –

And a whole lot of energy, plus some creativity and an entire _world_ of enjoyment –

And then Iorek was roaring his own completion, loud enough Lee feared for the integrity of the cavern walls in a moment of suspended breath, but then the three of them were slumping against each other and laughing – laughing like they’d been too long at the moonshine; laughing until he felt he might burst.

The sleep they all had after that, curled up together atop the hard stone and yet not at all uncomfortable, was by far the best Lee had had in three years.

Dawn woke them, or rather Iorek’s nose sniffing it out, and Hester’s ears quivered upwards as they all realised that their absence at the camp would have been noted that night, although Lee trusted that John Faa, their motley group’s steadfast leader, was more than knowledgeable enough to know that nothing was truly amiss.

Nothing _was_ amiss Lee amended hopefully as he nuzzled into warm fur, not yet ready to open his eyes, his head pillowed on a sturdy foreleg and Iorek’s chin a welcome weight on Lee's own chest. Hester was bundled up in his arms, stirring sleepily between them, and Lee stroked her fur and then Iorek’s as dark eyes shone down at him in the thin grey light that made it down the tunnel from outside to pierce the gloom.

“A good morning to you, Iorek,” Lee greeted his friend, even as his heart dearly wished for the permission to change that descriptor into something else.

“To you as well, Lee,” Iorek, as often the case was, was the voice of common sense, “We should return to the camp.”

“Can’t believe you wore this during everything that went on last night,” Lee, quiet voiced, was running his fingers through the fur next to Iorek’s helmet, and then over the cool metal when Iorek made a noise of permission and bowed his head.

His eyes were solemn and steady on Lee’s face, somehow searching; the pair moving nearer in increments, rather than away. 

“I believe there is time for me to remove it, if we do not take too long,” Iorek broke the eye contact to turn his head towards the exit to the cavern, sniffing, and then back.

“I – I’d like that,” Lee had no chance of stopping his voice from hitching, at both the implication and the clever nose that buried itself wonderfully in the crook of his neck once again. Iorek openly licked him there, this time, his tongue swiping up to the curve of Lee’s jaw and the apple of his cheek.

Lee shoved himself upwards on an elbow, careful of Hester, to kiss the corner of Iorek’s mouth.

“Will you take these off?” Iorek raised a forepaw to Lee’s clothes, opposable thumb circling a button without going so far as to open it, and Lee nodded willingly, finding he was fumbling with desire all over again.

This time was slower, even sweeter, no sickly scent from the spilled powder bothering them now, and Hester kicked her hind legs a bit against Lee’s belly before conceding she wanted to wake up enough to offer up encouragement and a number of suggestions.

“Patience, little hare,” Iorek chided, tone affectionate, his head descending between Lee’s legs the moment the human got his trousers off. Never mind that Lee wasn’t feeling very patient at all himself in that moment – he just groaned heartily and tried not to thrust too much, his back arching as he forced himself to slow down; let himself absorb what Iorek was doing, his stomach jerking with the feel of it.

His legs were spread sinfully wide, ankles kicked up over broad shoulders as far as they could reach, by the time the panserbjørn took pity on him and let him come.

“ _Hmmm_ ,” With that sound of appreciation to warn Lee what just might happen next, Iorek promptly proceeded to lick up the mess on Lee’s belly – Hester having shifted out of the way just in time – and then to lick over the twitching head of Lee's highly sensitised glans, in a manner that had him squealing with enthusiasm just as much as he had last night.

“ _Iorek_ – _a-ah_ –”

Iorek proved determined to wring another orgasm out of him – and succeeded – before he relented enough to allow Lee to do his utmost to wreck joyful havoc on the polar bear's own strong body in return, the human wringing as much pleasure out of his friend as he possibly could. Eagerly using mouth and body and hands, pressing his thighs together and guiding Iorek into thrusting between them until climax tore through the panserbjørn's shuddering frame.

“ _Lee –!_ ”

One day, Lee promised himself. One day when they had more time and if Iorek was willing, he would coax his body into opening up enough that it would accept that glorious cock.

And while they deemed it prudent to seal the tunnel carefully shut behind them on finally emerging from the cavern, and as such never did establish precisely what the glittering powder was – the question less important than the discovery of the missing children and Lyra’s quest – Lee and Iorek _were_ successful in enacting no few of Hester’s suggestions, in the end.


End file.
